In its second Big 12 matchup of the season, the No. 17 BYU women's volleyball team swept Texas Tech on Saturday.
The Cougars won three straight sets with scores of 25-16, 25-23 and 25-22.
After a service error in the third set gave Texas Tech the ball, BYU held a thin lead of 23-22 and needed to stay strong against Emily Conteras, as she had two of Texas Tech’s eight service aces. With the game on the line, Claire Little registered her 13th kill of the game to give BYU match point.
Little called game shortly after as she got her team-high 14th kill to improve BYU’s record to 9-3 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play. Little’s consecutive kills to end the game gave BYU a total of 41 kills and a .224 hit percentage.
Early in the set, BYU was down 13-8 after having three errors across a 4-point span. The lead was looking to be 14-8 after it was ruled BYU had four consecutive hits, but after a challenge from coach Heather Olmstead, it was deemed that a Texas Tech player touched the ball along with the net.
The point was replayed and the Cougars proceeded to go on a 10-3 run that led to a 18-16 lead. This wasn’t the only time the Cougars benefited from a coach's challenge though.
Early in the second set, BYU saw itself down 5-1 early and about to fall to 6-1 due to an attack from Little being ruled out. However, Olmstead challenged the play and it was ruled successful and BYU was down 5-2 instead. This sparked the Cougars to get their first lead of the set as they won seven consecutive points to go up 9-5.
“We always talk about keeping our focus when something kinda halts or jolts it. Whether we win or lose those challenges, we wanna focus on the task at hand,” Olmstead said. “We were down in both the second and third sets by pretty big deficits and I just like the way we fought and hung in there.”
GAME HIGHLIGHTS | BYU vs Texas Tech pic.twitter.com/rx6rg7Fvqb
— BYU Women’s Volleyball (@BYUwvolleyball) September 28, 2024
To finish out the second set, BYU leaned on Kjersti Strong, the graduate transfer from Saint Mary’s.
In the wake of a BYU timeout due to Texas Tech’s 3-0 run to capture a 22-21 lead, Strong won all four points for her team as she got 3 kills and a solo block to win the set 25-23.
“Kjersti wanted the ball, you know. She was tipping, she was hitting hard, she was moving the ball around deep, corner, line. I just liked her assertiveness. I love her solo block at the end of the second set,” Olmstead said. “Her experience on the court is valuble for us and calms our team down.”
While it’s easy to give Strong credit for the leadership she showed and the impressive plays she had, Strong was quick to show love to her teammate Alex Bower, the freshman setter.
“Alex as a setter is amazing. She is always talking to me about what she sees … about how she can be better and how I can be better and it really makes me feel self assured that I can do whatever I need to do,” Strong said.
Bower ended up assisting on all three of the kills Strong had to end the second set. She accounted for 34 of the team's 38 assists.
On top of that, Bower got three aces which matched her career-high. Hannah Billeter had a season-high three aces as well.
For Texas Tech, a hit percentage of .093 became too much to overcome with the first set being especially rough when they only totaled a .094 percentage compared to the .382 percentage BYU had.
With the game concluded, BYU players stayed on the court after the game as the team hosted an autograph signing for fans.
Next, BYU plays Arizona (11-2) in Tucson, Arizona on Wednesday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.